Girnarsoft, Man Capital invest $8 mn in ed-tech startup CollegeDekho

Ed-tech startup CollegeDekho has raised $8 million (around Rs 56 crore at current exchange rate) in its Series B round of funding led by its previous investors: parent Girnarsoft Education Services Pvt. Ltd, and Man Capital LLP, which is the London-based global investment arm of Mansour Group, an Egyptian conglomerate.

The funds will be used for expansion, research, product development, and technology, CollegeDekho said in a statement.

CollegeDekho owns a portal that lets students compare colleges and score cut-offs for admission and more. The website also provides information on admission process, entrance exam, scholarships, and helps students pick careers based on their strengths.

“The company has grown 100% every year for the last three years and we keep focusing on accelerating this growth. With our reach expanding nationally and internationally, we are excited to put the company on a rapid growth trajectory,” Ruchir Arora, co-founder and chief executive, CollegeDekho, said.

CollegeDekho was co-founded by Arora, Saurabh Jain, Rohit Saha, and Rajiv Singh in July 2015.

According to the company, it has over 36,000 colleges in its database now and has worked with 1.2 million students across India so far.

“India has over 250 million school-going students, more than any other country. It also has one of the largest networks of higher education institutions in the world,” Nikhil Malik, partner, Man Capital, said.

With this round, the startup’s total funds raised stand at $12 million.

In February 2018, it had raised $2 million from previous investors Man Capital, Girnarsoft and others.

CollegeDekho is one of the subsidiaries of Girnarsoft, which was founded in 2007 by siblings Amit and Anurag Jain. Besides primary business CarDekho, which is an online marketplace for used cars, Girnarsoft owns BikeDekho, Gaadi.com, TyreDekho and online shopping adviser BuyingIQ.com.

In January this year, TechCircle reported that Girnarsoft had closed a $110 million (Rs 770 crore then) from a mix of new and previous investors: Sequoia Capital, Axis Bank, Hillhouse Capital, Ratan Tata's RNT Associates, and CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), among others.

Jaipur-based Girnarsoft saw its revenues rise nearly 62.5% to $37.5 million (Rs 260 crore) for the financial year through 31 March 2019.

In December 2015, Girnarsoft had invested $1 million in CollegeDekho.

In its annual report for 2018-19, Girnarsoft said that growth in its used car and new car businesses led to the increase in its revenue.

For 2017-18, it recorded a 40% growth in revenue at Rs 160 crore while its net loss shrank to Rs 70 crore from Rs 136 crore.